The career of William Marshal, later in life earl of Pembroke (d. 1219), opens a remarkable window onto the world of the 12th- and 13th-century knightly class and the chivalric culture to which they subscribed. William Marshal was quite simply the most famous and successful knight of his day. Born in the middle of Stephen’s reign the younger son of a middling Thames valley baron, he won fame and fortune on the tournament circuit, and rose to be one of England’s richest magnates and Regent of his country in the troubled minority of Henry III’s reign.
Through the medium of the unique verse biography of him, the Histoire, written shortly after his death, we are able to reconstruct his career in arms more intimately than for any other English knight of the Middle Ages. There are vivid accounts in the Histoire of his early career in arms, his many successes on the tournament circuit, his years in the service of Henry the Young King, and the ups and downs of his life at the court of King John. The Histoire, which is now easily accessible in a good English translation, will be the main source for the course, and passages from it will be read in most classes. However, other sources will be considered alongside it, among them the Marshal’s surviving charters.
The main topics to be considered will be the sources for the Marshal’s life, the trajectory of his career, the nature of his chivalry, the membership of his knightly household, and his expressions of piety, notably the account in the Histoire of his death. Teaching will be by means of informal lectures at which questions and discussion will be encouraged.
